Albright is known for her pin collection, and the Washington’s Post’s Reliable Source asked her if she had her “Tweet” pin made for her first tweet on Monday.

“A few months ago I was waiting for a flight, killing time in the Denver airport gift shop when I came across the ‘tweet’ pin. I’ve been waiting for a special occasion to debut it, and today seemed more than appropriate,” she said.

It started with a tweet Wednesday night, which then set off a Twitter spat between Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler and Gov. John Hickenlooper’s chief strategy officer.

After reports surfaced that Hickenlooper, a Democrat, voiced support at a private forum for an estimated $1 billion dollar tax increase to fund public schools, Brauchler took to Twitter to assail the governor.

“I think he wants to be a friend. I think he wants to be an adviser. But at the end of the day, no one elected him to be the state bartender. They elected him to be governor,” said Brauchler at the time, alluding that Hickenlooper is indecisive in making decisions.

After hearing feedback from many of our readers, we’re moving to open up the conversation more here on The Spot.

Currently, reader comments have to be pre-approved by one of a handful of moderators before they appear online. We began this initially to help keep the vitriolic personal attacks so often associated with political debate at bay. And in many cases, the process has served its purpose — misogynistic, racist and toxic comments are deleted before being published for all to see.

But often enough, limited staff resources keeps reasonable comments sitting in the comment queue for several hours before being published. This delay stifles the potential for real-time debate and discourse, and ultimately, we believe, doesn’t serve our readers.

So, we’re going to meet you halfway. In order to comment without being moderated, you must authenticate yourself by signing up for a DISQUS account, or logging in through Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo or OpenID. These comments — because the provide a form of verification — will go through un-moderated and will only be reviewed for removal if flagged by a member of The Spot’s community. Just because a comment is flagged, of course, doesn’t mean it will be removed. Readers who want to comment but don’t sign in through an account will still have their remarks reviewed before being published.

If you have any questions or suggestions about the new system, we want to hear your (constructive) feedback. Leave them in the comments below, and we’ll do our best to respond.

“He said a third party or a minor party would be suicidal. He encouraged us to get involved, and we had thousands of people who did just that,” Rodgers said. “They became delegates. They did it through the process. Because Tom didn’t like who they had chosen, he gave us this ultimatum.”

The Tea Party groups are said to represent about 10,000 people.

On an apparently much smaller level, some conservatives are urging Republicans to skip the governor’s race primary as a show of protest.

For those Colorado Republicans disappointed in our two choices for governor: Scott McInnis and Dan Maes. We’d like to register our disappointment by voting for neither of them in the August 10 primary — in hopes that the winner will drop out and a credible candidate be selected in his place.

(Disclosure: Your Spotted This Morning Correspondent is never sure what to “like” or skip on Facebook, as I often wish to track what’s going on with a politician or group I don’t necessarily “like.” So if you poke around on my Facebook page, please understand my “likes” aren’t necessarily endorsements. And please add me as a friend if you do visit.)

[Note to accomplished users of Twitter: I get it that I fit in the “learning new tricks” category.]

As the campaign season heats up there’s a new form of mud-slinging out there, and it could be awfully effective.

Consider one of the newest Twitterers to join the network: GovernorMcInnis, who started tweeting Feb. 1.

As I write this post, the latest tweet for the Twitter account with a bio that reads “I am the next governor of the great state of Colorado” suggests the Republican candidate doesn’t know the time of day.

“Is it Daylight Savings yet? For some reason, my clocks are an hour off.”

The account isn’t that of the actual Scott McInnis, and his campaign spokesman says he doesn’t know who created the account.

GovernorMcInnis links to the real McInnis campaign website. His background shows a repeated photo of McInnis, and he follows actual Colorado politicos and journalists, including yours truly.

But critical readers will soon question whether the GovernorMcInnis of the Twittersphere is really the candidate, as he has a penchant for re-tweeting links to items critical of the real McInnis, and generally tweets like a moron.

So it was this time last year that I took up the mantle of the prognosticator that my birth itself foretold. As a bona fide New Year’s Baby – born Jan. 1, 1967 – it was high time I joined the proud (i.e., slow-news-cycle) tradition of making predictions for the coming year.

How did I do?

Flip a coin.

By my count, I was 50-50, but showing promise.

I offered a Baker’s Dozen plus one. I got five right, six wrong and three of the predictions I rate a pass. Because the bulk of those passes lean in my favor, I’m calling it even.

Soon I’ll post my predictions for 2010. And this year I’m soliciting suggestions. So if you’re feeling prescient, please add your prediction(s) in a comment. I’ve also asked my Twitter followers and Facebook friends to make their divinations. (Please follow or friend me for more updates.)

Newsflash! This is fun. Two of Colorado’s junior Congressmen from opposite sides of the aisle are sitting next to each other on a plane from Denver to Washington.

Representatives Jared Polis and Mike Coffman, a Democrat and a Republican, respectively, are no doubt engaged in a conversation any good political junkie would love to overhear. So let’s hope someone’s listening.

We know this, because Polis is one of the good folks we follow on Twitter. (You can follow us as well. We’re under PostOpinion.)

“Sitting next to Rep. Coffman (R-CO) on our return flight to DC,” Polis wrote, er, tweeted at roughly 10:45 a.m. Mountain. “In air for next few hours.”

Lynn Bartels thinks politics is like sports but without the big salaries and protective cups. The Washington Post's "The Fix" blog has named her one of Colorado's best political reporters and tweeters.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.